Wayne Township monastery celebrates 40th anniversary

By: Eric Poole

Monday

Aug 6, 2007 at 12:01 AM

It wasn't the heat, or even the humidity. It was the state of mind or, more accurately, spirit.As 400 pilgrims visited the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration on Monday for a celebration of the Feast of the Transfiguration and a celebration of the monastery's 40th anniversary, temperatures rose toward a muggy 90 degrees.

It wasn't the heat, or even the humidity. It was the state of mind or, more accurately, spirit.

As 400 pilgrims visited the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration on Monday for a celebration of the Feast of the Transfiguration and a celebration of the monastery's 40th anniversary, temperatures rose toward a muggy 90 degrees.

But the Most Rev. Nathaniel, archbishop of Detroit, went for the layered look, not as a fashion statement, but in keeping with the religious significance of the occasion.

After participating in the morning service while wearing all his vestments, Nathaniel tried to keep his mind off the heat.

Mother Christophora, abbess of the monastery, said this year's celebration drew pilgrims from as far as Mississippi, and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

The pilgrims who made long trips did so in part because of the monastery's significance in the Orthodox faith in the United States. The facility, which dates to 1967, is the oldest women's monastery in this country.

It was founded by Mother Alexandra, born Princess Ileana of Romania, who chose the site in Wayne Township's Wurtemburg neighborhood after a nationwide search because of the area's resemblance to her homeland.

"She loved her home country very much," said Christophora, who knew Alexandra in her final years. Alexandra was abbess of the monastery from its founding until she retired in the early 1980s and lived there until her death in 1991.

She was exiled from her homeland after World War II when the Soviet-backed Communist leadership took control of Romania. After the Communists were overthrown in 1989, Alexandra was able to visit her home one last time.

Bran Castle, known as author Bram Stoker's inspiration for the castle in the book "Dracula," is still in Alexandra's family and is owned by one of her children.

During World War II, as Romania shifted between Allied and Nazi control, Ileana - who took the name Alexandra in the mid-1960s after becoming an Orthodox nun - ran a hospital at the castle.

Nathaniel remembered the monastery's founder.

"She was a very gentle woman, a very sincere woman, a very tough woman," he said. "She had a great sense of helping people."

Nathaniel was familiar with one family of pilgrims. Mary Ann Kauffman, her husband, Gene, and daughter Jacquelyn made the trip to the monastery with niece Jennifer Warsack. The Kauffmans attend Holy Cross Orthodox Church in New Castle, where Nathaniel once served as priest.

While this was her first Transfiguration pilgrimage, Mary Ann Kauffman said she had been to the monastery on other occasions and found it to be a spiritual experience.

"It's always special when you come to the church," she said. "It always makes me cry."

And, on Monday, it made a few people sweat.

Christophora looked at the weather as a blessing rather than a challenge. While heavy rains rolled through the region early Monday, the storms stopped just in time to spare the pilgrims.

"We're just thankful that the rain stopped," Christophora said. "God knew we needed the rain, and he knew when to stop it."

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